In Hiroshima, 8:15, a recently discovered eyewitness account of the atomic devastation in Hiroshima, Japan, survivor Kiyoshi Tanimoto tells the full story of what he witnessed in the days, weeks, and months after the nuclear bombing. Tanimoto was a 36-year-old Methodist pastor on the morning of August 6, 1945, moving church furniture to a safehouse on the outskirts of Hiroshima. At 8:15 a.m., a "sharp flash of light" seared across the horizon. Then hell began.
Tanimoto's story was first told by American journalist John Hersey, who arrived in Hiroshima nine months after the bombing to interview survivors for a piece in the New Yorker. Tanimoto was one of six people Hersey featured, but Tanimoto began writing his own memoir two years after the bombing. Discovered among Hersey's papers in 2022, Tanimoto's account is stark and heartrending, yet infused with his determination to advocate for a peaceful and nonnuclear future for the world. The bombing's gruesome aftermath is harrowing in detail, as is the slow recognition of the invisible injuries of "the atomic disease" that befell Tanimoto and thousands of others. Tanimoto includes the experiences of many other hibakusha (atomic bombing survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) he came across in his ministrations. His decision to bravely rebuild his church in Hiroshima seems inconceivable, but the depth of Tanimoto's Christian faith resonates throughout this brief memoir. An invaluable addition to Hiroshima and nuclear studies, Hiroshima, 8:15 is one individual's testament to loving and caring for one's neighbors and forgiving one's enemies. --Peggy Kurkowski, freelance book reviewer in Denver